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James Bond books
There are currently 40 officially licenced James Bond books authored by six writers since 1953. The first and most famous 14 were written by Ian Fleming, spawning a wide world of Bond media including films, comic strips, comic books, and video games. The various Post-Fleming continuation authors (1968-present) created their own separate literary continuities, whose only connection to one another are Fleming's original novels. Several novelizations, spin-off books, short stories, and anthologies have also been published. History Fleming After serving in the British Naval Intelligence Division during World War II, Fleming was inspired to write a novel about an international spy. Fleming bragged to his friends about how good he believed the book would be. Fleming chose a bland but masculine name for his main character and gave the character many of his own personal tastes including golf and gambling. He began writing his first Bond novel in 1952 in Jamaica over two months to take his mind off his upcoming wedding and pregnant fiancé. Casino Royale was published in 1953 to moderate reviews but great sales in the UK. Fleming, who's full time job was a Forgeign Manager for a UK newspaper, used his yearly 3-month holiday to write each Bond book resulting in 1954's Live and Let Die, 1955's Moonraker, 1956's Diamonds Are Forever, 1957's From Russia with Love, 1958's Dr. No, 1959's Goldfinger, 1960's For Your Eyes Only -- a collection of short Bond stories -- 1961's Thunderball, 1962's The Spy Who Loved Me, 1963's On Her Magesty's Secret Service, and 1964's You Only Live Twice. Fleming was a heavy drinker and smoker and suffered heart disease. He suffered his first heart attack in 1961 and a fatal heart attack in August 1964. His final two books, 1965's The Man with the Golden Gun and 1966's collection of short stories Octopussy and The Living Daylights were published posthumously. Gildrose Publications With the success and fortune found by Casino Royale, Fleming purchased the small publication company Gildrose Publications, which had only published his novel. Gildrose, latered renamed Ian Fleming Publications in 1999 continues to license the Bond franchise and expand the literary catalogue. Gildrose planned on having several authors use the pen name "Robert Markham" to continue to scribe more Bond books but the idea was scrapped after only one work, Colonel Sun, was written by English author and Bond fan Kingsley Amis in 1968. Amis also wrote a short story about an elderly Bond returning in a time of crisis, but was refused permission to publish it. Gildrose produced two novelizations to the EON films, James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me and James Bond and Moonraker in 1977 and 1979, respectively written by Christopher Wood. Gardner After a thirteen year hiatus of original content (and recently after the death of Anne Charteris, Fleming's wife) Gildrose contracted John Gardner to scribe several Bond novels and to bring Bond in the modern 1980s. In 1981 Licence Renewed was published to mediocre critical response and sales. Nevertheless Gardner wrote a total of 16 Bond novels, including two novelizations of feature films. In 1996 Gardner published his last Bond book, COLD. Benson After Gardner's departure Raymond Benson was contracted by Gildrose to continue the Bond story. Benson, an American, was accused by fans of Americanizing the series but was also hailed as returning to Fleming's roots more than Gardner had managed. Benson wrote six original Bond novels, starting with 1997's Zero Minus Ten. Benson's novels, like Gardner's, featured James Bond in a modern year. He also wrote three film novelizations and three Bond short stories. In 2002 Benson left the Bond series. He is, to date, the only continuation author to release any short stories. 2000's Ian Fleming Publications asked British author Sebastian Faulks to pen a new Bond novel in the early 2000's. Faulks delivered a novel in 2008 titled Devil May Care set in the 1960s. Faulks chose to not continue and was replaced with American author Jeffery Deaver who penned Carte Blanche in 2011 as a reboot of the character with a modem setting . In 2013 Ian Fleming Publications announced that William Boyd would pen the thirty-eighth Bond book in time for the 60th literary anniversary. Solo was released in September 2013 in the UK and October 2013 in the US. In 2014 it was announced that Anthony Horowitz would write the thirty-ninth Bond novel. He would be using previously unreleased material by Fleming as an inspiration. This would take the form of several plot treatments for a James Bond television series that was never made, many if which had previously been used as the basis of the short stories that formed the collections For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy and The Living Daylights. The book titled Trigger Mortis was released in September 2015. After a positive reaction to the novel, Horowitz has been announced as writing a second Bond novel (also with material from Fleming) which will be released in 2018. In February 2018 it was announced that the new novel Forever and a Day would serve as a prequel to Casino Royale. List of novels List of novelisations List of spin-off works __NOEDITSECTION__ References Category:James Bond books Category:Browse Category:James Bond media